


A Precipice of Sorts (1.0)

by scienceofficerjim-kirk (DemiPalladium)



Series: Instructor [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Archiving, Cadet James T. Kirk, Gen, Instructor Spock, M/M, academy au, and I'm putting it here because I'm fond of it but not all that proud of it, wrote this two years ago as a present for someone on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22111402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemiPalladium/pseuds/scienceofficerjim-kirk
Summary: Instructor S’chn T’gai Spock of Starfleet Academy has been reflecting on Cadet James T. Kirk for 26.7 minutes, 21.2 minutes longer than the five-point-five minutes he assigns to shallow-level meditation. He now only has five hours, thirty-nine-point-eight minutes total for meditation.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Spock, James T. Kirk/Spock
Series: Instructor [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591615
Comments: 17
Kudos: 55





	A Precipice of Sorts (1.0)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThereBeWhalesHere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereBeWhalesHere/gifts).

> This version of "A Precipice of Sorts" is 99% faithful to its original upload on Tumblr; it has 2-3 small grammatical edits, but is otherwise untouched. I've decided to upload the original version alongside the rewrite for the following reasons: one, archiving (this IS the "Archive of Our Own," after all!); two, just in case the person I gifted this to forever ago prefers the original; and three, because Tumblr is a pain to navigate and I'd really have all my fics where I can find them. While this version does have definitive benefits over its 2.0 rewrite, I feel that my writing has progressed enough to render this original fic obsolete (probably? I have no idea, truth be told). 
> 
> Enjoy(!/?)

Instructor S’chn T’gai Spock of Starfleet Academy has been reflecting on Cadet James T. Kirk for 26.7 minutes, 21.2 minutes longer than the five-point-five minutes he assigns to shallow-level meditation. He now only has five hours, thirty-nine-point-eight minutes total for meditation.

He allows himself this lapse, as his subject of reflection is simply so…_fascinating_.

He first had the pleasure of meeting the infamous James Tiberius Kirk, son of Commodore Winona Kirk and hero George Kirk, when Kirk appeared in the advanced testing room before the start of the current semester.  
——  
After signing in all students on the role sheet (noting some former pupils, with what could perhaps pass for satisfaction amongst Vulcans upon seeing former students succeed and desire to continue down the path one had laid for them), one student at the back of the line remained unaccounted for.

“_Dif-tor heh smusma, savensu S’chn-T’gai_,” the student greets with a perfunctory bow, a shapely ta’al, and a perfect—if, perhaps, out-of-breath—Vulcan accent.

“_Sochya-eh dif, ne-lan_,” the response and a returned ta'al would have been startled out of him, if Vulcans were capable of such things. “You are not on the role,” he recovers.

“I have gained dispensation from _khart-lan_ Pike, _savensu_,” he replies easily, placing a PADD on the instructor’s desk.

Spock analyzed the screen quickly.

Indeed, the document was real and authorized _ne-lan_ James T. Kirk to attempt two Bilingual Aptitude and Masterful Fluency exams (shortened to the “BAMFs” by his communications-track students, as “everyone who passes one IS one,” whatever that may mean), one in Standard Vulcan and one in High Vulcan.

“_Are you certain of your desire to take both tests on the same day?_” Spock raises an eyebrow.

“_I will take them_,” Kirk determines, a steely-confident-_captivating_ look in his reflective blue eyes, “_and I will pass them_.”

And he did, with what the humans term “flying colors”.

Spock has not seen such an entrancing essay since his days on Vulcan—has not seen handwriting with such calligraphic _beauty_ or read sentences structured so _fascinatingly_ or ideas presented so _concisely_ and connections made so _logically_ that he cannot help but think this blond, upstart _ne-lan_ copied from somewhere--but even the most comprehensive anti-plagiarism cross-checks known to the galaxy fail to turn up anything but the most tenuous links to completely irrelevant papers based on handwriting similarities. 

During Kirk’s oral examinations for both Standard and High Vulcan, Spock deviates from his assigned topics of conversation by 15.6% _completely unknowingly_; the ebb and flow of speaking to another on his mental level so novel and unique that he could not help becoming absorbed into it.

———

His internal clock breaks him free of his reverie.

He, an instructor of Starfleet Academy, has been reflecting on Cadet James T. Kirk for 58.8 minutes, 55.3 minutes longer than the five-point-five minutes he assigns to shallow-level meditation. He now only has five hours and four-point-seven minutes total for meditation.

In order to function adequately tomorrow, he must achieve four hours minimum of deep-level meditation.

In order to remain employed by Starfleet and keep his teaching license, he must also keep all tests he oversees on-file for at least one Terran year.

His eyes slide to his PADD, wherein copies of Kirk’s tests and essays reside.

Perhaps rereading them will help him put the cadet out of his mind.

(He knows it will not. He does it anyway.)


End file.
